Catherine Robinson is exhausted.
For the past week, she and other organizers have been working overtime to ensure voters’ ballots are counted in the U.S. Senate race in her home state of Mississippi. They deployed monitors to observe the count and sent messages to inform voters of how to rectify issues they experienced on Election Day.
On Monday, the issues came to a head.
Robinson, state co-manager of Black Voters Matters, received a flood of calls from voters who said they felt intimidated and scared to enter the Hinds County Circuit Clerk’s Office in Jackson, the state’s capital city. Voters were met with increased police presence and blocked roads. It immediately caused confusion, leading some to think it was a ploy to obstruct the process or target them, Robinson said. A coalition of groups gathered outside the courthouse to protest, chanting “Don’t Interrupt Our Vote.”
“We asked the police to eliminate the presence because voters felt intimidated. They didn’t feel comfortable when going into the courthouse,” Robinson told Capital B. “We’re in a critical state at this time where we’re trying to make sure that nobody feels left behind. That we are counting every vote.”
No one confirmed the reason for the additional police or roadblocks, Robinson said.
Organizers later learned it was because of a visit from U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, who held a press conference with state and city officials to announce a $64 million grant to Jackson in an effort to reduce violent crime and strengthen public safety. Jackson is one of four cities selected to receive the funding.
Initially, the conference was supposed to be on the steps of City Hall, but moved inside because of the demonstration, according to Mississippi Today.
Robinson questioned the timing of this visit, given the high-stakes election.
“It is not a time for us to play about the election process and the electoral process,” she said. “There should have been a statement made by the elected officials of the city of Jackson explaining what was taking place and how it was not targeting voters. No one has come out and made that statement.”
Capital B reached out to the city of Jackson and the state’s attorney general’s office for comment, but did not hear back.
This comes on the heels of a neck-and-neck U.S. Senate race where Mississippi could make history. With 97% of the vote counted, Democrat Scott Colom is leading by more than 2,500 votes against Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith. Already, there’s been heightened scrutiny of some election officials who provided incorrect information about location and meeting times to volunteers observing the ballot count process.
Mississippi is one of the most difficult places to vote, and one of three states without in-person early voting. Having hundreds of thousands of affidavit ballots is an unprecedented situation in the state, and even some circuit clerks didn’t have some information. This made it difficult to get accurate information to voters, said Karla Edwards, deputy director of programs and strategy for Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable. If a voter had to take multiple steps to get to the courthouse, then see law enforcement, it can cause additional stress and triggers, she added.
“For some, if you’re in downtown Jackson, where parking is limited, and you’re cutting off the access of one lane, that could have affected someone’s day and they could say, ‘I’m not going to deal with this,’ and they won’t get their vote cured,” Edwards said. To “cure” a ballot means voters get a chance to correct issues if there was an error with casting a ballot.
As the clock ticks, there’s two deadlines for Mississippi voters: all affidavit ballots must be cured along with all absentee ballots mailed in by 5 p.m. CST on Nov. 10.
By Friday, all county election officials must send certified election results to the Mississippi secretary of state’s office. Contact your circuit clerk’s office or the secretary of state’s office to track your ballot if you were marked inactive or did not appear in the system at your precinct.
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